Social influence Flashcards
Describe conformity
- type of social influence
- changes behaviour
- matching attitudes, beliefs or behaviours with social norms
Who categorised the motivations to conform
Deutsch and Gerard
What are the motivations to conform?
Normative Social Influence
Informational Social Influence
What are the three types of conformity?
Compliance
Identification
Internalisation
Describe what is meant by Compliance
When someone adheres to requests or demands in public.
Disagrees in private
Outline a study that supports Compliance
Asch
Ps comply and answer questions incorrectly
Don’t agree in private
Describe what is meant by Identification
When someone conforms to the demands of a social role in society
Outline a study that supports Identification
Zimbardo
Ps comformed to their roles as guard or prisoner
Describe what is meant by internalisation
When an individual changes their behaviour to fit in with a group publicly
Agrees privately
Group beliefs become part of the individuals belief system
What type of social influence did Asch study?
Normative Social Influence
What was the aim of Asch’s experiment?
To investigate whether people would conform to a groups wrong answer even if the answer was unambiguous
What is the Asch effect?
The influence of the group’s majority view on an individual’s judgement
Describe the method of Asch’s study
Ps were shown a series of printed line segments
Lines were different lengths
A,b,c and x
Ps were asked to identify which line segment resembles line x
One confederate per group
Describe the findings of Asch’s study
75% of participants conformed to group pressure at least once
Four key factors to influence conformity:
Size of majority
- up to 7 then plateau
Presence of another dissenter
- one can drop conformity rates to zero
Public of private
Task difficulty
Evaluate Asch’s study
Cons
- Artificial situation,
Low ecological validity, can’t be generalised
-Deception,
Didn’t know others were confederates
Pros
- Lab setting,
Variables were strictly controlled,
Easily repeated,
Influence of extraneous variables are minimised
Outline other factors affecting conformity
Confidence
- Asch found that confident Ps didn’t conform
- PERRIN AND SPENCER,
Asch on engineering students,
conformity not as high
More confident in their decision making
Gender
Before 1970s psychologists felt that women conformed more than men.
- Eagly and Carli(1981)
Analysed conformity research data
Found inconsistencies in sex differences.
Genres differed where audiences created group pressure.
Eagly
Women are more likely to conform because they don’t like group conflict.
Men are less likely to conform because they are expected to show independence and assertiveness.
What was the aim of Sherif(1935)
To show that people conform to group norms when they’re performing an ambiguous task
What is the auto kinetic effect
Dot of light is projected onto a screen in a dark room.
Light appears to move, it’s not.
The dot is in a visual illusion.
Describe the method of Sherif(1935) study
Lab experiment
Used auto kinetic effect.
Ps were led to believe that someone was moving the light.
Asked to guess how far the light moved.
Tested in three stages
1- guessed individually
2- guessed in groups of three
3- guessed individually
Describe the results of Sherif(1935)
Phase 1- guessed varied between 20-80cm
Phase2- converged to common estimate
Phase 3- made guesses closer to common group.
Describe the conclusion of Sherif(1935)
People look to others for guidance when ambiguous
(Like auto kinetic effect)
Look to others when don’t have all information needed
(Informational conformity)
Ps estimates converged because they were influenced by ISI
Evaluate Sherif(1935)
Lab experiment
- a third variable shouldn’t have influenced results
- can establish cause and effect.
- replicable, Ps variables could be kept constant
Deception
- ps believed stationary light was moving
-Narrow sample, only males participates, reduces generalisability
- artificial situation
Outline Normative Social Influence
People conform to the group to fit in, feel good, and to be accepted
Study- Asch, Ps wanted to avoid ridicule
Outline Informational Social Influence
Believe group is competent
And has correct information
Particularly when task is ambiguous
ie, emergency situation
Outline 3 studies and what they found on social rules, norms and scripts
Hare(2003)
- social role is a pattern of behaviour
- Expected in a given setting or group
Deutsch&Gerard(1955)
- social norm is an expectation of what is appropriate.
Schank& Abelson(1977)
- a script is a person’s knowledge about the sequence of events expected in a specific setting
Describe the sample for Zimbardo’s experiment
Advertisement placed in 1971
Asked for male volunteers
70 volunteered
Went through psychological testing
- eliminated underlying psychiatric issues
Down to 24 healthy male college students.
Each paid 15 a day
Randomly assigned prisoner or guard.
Describe the method for Zimbardo’s study
Mock prison makes in basement of Stanford University.
Ps assigned prisoner were fake arrested at their homes by Palo Alto police officers,
Booked at a police station,
Taken back to the mock prison.
Experiment was scheduled for 2 weeks
Describe the findings of Zimbardo’s prison study
Surprise to researchers,
Prisoners and guards assumed their roles with energy
Day 2- some prisoners revolted.
Guards threatened with night sticks.
Soon guards came to harass prisoners in sadistic manner
Lack of privacy
Lack of basic comforts
Prisoners showed signs of anxiety and hopelessness.
Began tolerating guards abuse.
After 6 days experiment stopped due to participant’s deteriorating behaviour
Apply social roles, norms and scripts to Zimbardo’s study
Roles
- guards and prisoners engaged in appropriate behaviours for their roles.
Norms
- required guards to be authoritarian and prisoners submissive.
When prisoners rebelled, violated norms, led to upheaval.
Scripts
Specific acts of guards and prisoners derived from scripts.
Some prisoners became so immersed that they showed symptoms of mental breakdown
- Alexander proved none faced long term harm.
How has Zimbardo’s study mirrored real life events
Abu Ghraib
Abuse on US army troops in prisoner of war camps like Abu Ghraib in 2003-4
Photographs document offences
Outline the aim of Orlando (1973)
To investigate how people conformed to roles given to them in an experiment in a mock psychiatric ward
Describe the method for Orlando(1973)
Mock psychiatric ward active for three days.
52 staff members took part
- 29 volunteered as mock patients
-22 worked their jobs as normal
Evaluate Orlando(1973)
Gave insight into real patient’s experiences in hospital
- influenced hospital staff to empathise more with patients
Describe the results of Orlando(1973)
Mock patients quickly began to act like normal hospital patients
Conformed to given roles
Lots showed signs of having withdrawal and depression
Six mock patients attempted to escape the ward
Some mock patients admitted to feelings of lost identity
Describe the aim of Reicher and Haslam(2006)
To observe how dynamics between guards and prisoners in a mock experiment have changed over time
Describe the method for Reicher and Haslam(2006)
Controlled observation
Set in a mock prison
Filmed for broadcasting
15 male volunteers took part.
Assigned roles randomly:
5 guards
10 inmates
Compliance, stress and depression levels were measured daily.
They were told that one random prisoner would be promoted and become a guard on day three
An ethics committee was set up and could stop the study at any time.
Describe the results of Reicher and Haslam(2006)
The guards find not form a group,
Did not always use their authority
Did not identify with their assigned role
Unequal system eventually failed because guards had a week group identity
Prisoners formed a strong group identity
Day 1-3: prisoners acted in ways they thought would allow them to become guards.
Day 4: prisoners formed a stronger identity because they couldn’t get promoted
Day 6: prisoners rebelled. Ps formed a democracy
Day 6-: democracy eventually failed because of group tensions. Some ex- prisoners tried to establish a hierarchy.
Ethics committee stopped the experiment because of participant stress levels.
Describe the conclusion for Reicher and Haslam(2006)
- volunteers didn’t embody their assigned roles
- implies flexibility of roles
Evaluate Reicher and Haslam(2006)
No deception
Protection, ethics committee., debrief and counselling offered
Artificial situation, low ecological validity, can’t be generalised well
Staged for TV, many people claim parts of study were staged or participants influenced by cameras.
Lack of empowerment, Zimbardo’s guards were promoted to keep order.
Describe what is meant by Obedience
The change of an individuals behaviour to comply with a demand by an authority figure
Often comp,y because ed with consequences
What inspired Milgram(1963) experiment?
Adolf Eichmann
Nazi war criminal
Defended his crimes by saying he was “just following orders”
Milgram wanted to test validity of this defence
Describe method for Milgram(1963)
40 male volunteers
Led to believe that they were participating in a study to improve learning and memory
Ps shown how to use a device that delivered electric shocks of different intensities to the learners.
Ps were told to shock learners if they gave a wrong answer to a test item and the show would help them to learn.
Shocks were increased in 15- volt increments up to 450 volts.
Ps didn’t know learners were confederates.
Cos didn’t actually receive shocks.
Describe the results of Milgram(1963)
Ps obediently and repeatedly shocked learners
Ds cried out for help, begged the participant to stop and complained of heart trouble
When R told Ps to continue, 65% continued to shock to maximum voltage ,
To the point learner was unresponsive
Describe Variations of Milgram(1963)
Location
- moved to an office space
- highest shock rate dropped to 48%
Proximity
-learner was in the same room
-highest shock rate dropped to 40%
- teachers and learners hands were touching
- highest shock rate dropped to 30%
- R gave orders by phone
- highest shock rate dropped to 23%
Show that when humanity increased, obedience decreased.
When authority of R decreased, obedience decreased
Evaluate Milgram (1963)
Lab experiment
- strict control of variables, establish cause and effect
Low ecological validity
- artificial situation
Deception
- ps couldn’t give informed consent because they didn’t know real nature of study.
Weren’t told they could withdraw
Lack of protection
- ps we’re visibly stressed
HOWEVER
no formal ethical guidelines existed at the time
Potential low internal validity
Ps might have knows that they weren’t inflicting real shocks and just did what the R wanted.
HOWEVER
Milgram stated that Ps displayed levels of stress so study was genuine.
Who theorised the agentic state
Milgram
Suggested that people could enter a state where they pass responsibility onto those giving orders.
More legitimate, more likely to be obeyed
Describe the agentic state
state
Behaves as agent for other person
Allows them to deny responsibility,
Distance themselves from consequences of actions
Describe the autonomous state
When people can control and act according to their own wishes
Outline research evidence for the agentic state
Milgram(1963)
Noted Ps felt under moral strain but still obeyed,
When R was not in the same room, obedience fell for, 62.5% to 20.4%
Describe legitimacy of authority
Obedient people accept power and status of legitimate authority figures
More likely to obey them
Higher up in social hierarchy, more likely to be obeyed
Taught through early socialisation
Describe the agentic shift
When individuals shift from the autonomous state to the agentic state
Milgram
Started autonomous then agentic
Outline 3 factors for staying in the agentic state
Insistence of authority-
Experimenter told Ps to continue even. If stressed
Pressure of location -
Conducted in university. See Ex as legitimate authority
Unwillingness to disrupt-
Ps might’ve felt like they couldn’t stop experiment bc already been payed
Who proposed the authoritarian personality
Adorno et al
Describe the authoritarian personality
Adorno proposed personality stems from early childhood experiences
People with strict parents develop more authoritarian personalities
Developed the f-scale designed to measure levels of authoritarian personality
Describe research findings for the authoritarian oersonality
Elms and Milgram(1966)
Correlation between personality type and AT using Milgram’s procedure.
H
Correlations study means we cant be sure personality type was the cause of high levels of obedience
Correlation ≠ causation
F-scale questionnaire is easily manipulated.
Means Ps could’ve second guessed questions
Also correlates with education levels,
Alternative explanation
Describe social support
When other people defy attempts to make them conform and obey,
It becomes easier for the individual to resist.
Presence of dissenters creates strong sources of defiance.
Describe reaserach findings on social support
Asch(1951)
If dissenter answered correctly from start,
Conformity dropped from 32% to 5.5%
I’d dissenter answered correctly later in the study, conformity dropped to 8.5%
Social support received earlier is more effective
Milgram
2 confederates paired with real Ps left, only. 10% gave maximum
Creation of disobedient group norms puts more pressure on participants to conform
Describe Rotter(1966)
Created a 13-part questionnaire
Measured internal and external LoC.
Scored range from 0 to 13
Low score =internal
High score = external
Describe Locus of Control
The extent to which people think they’re in control of their lives.
Internal - things happen as a result of our choices and decisions
External- things happen because of luck, fate or other external forces.
People with internal are less likely to conform
Describe research into Locus of Control
Spector(1983)
Ps with high external LoC conformed more than those with low external
- only in normative social pressure
Neither conformed in groups of ISP
Shows that feelings like we don’t need to be accepted into a social group increased our ability to resist social influence
Describe cultural differences in LoC
Moghaddam(1998)
Japanese people conform more easily than Americans and also have a more external LoC.
Shows cultural differences in conformity can be explained by differences in LoC
Describe Schurz(1985)
Told Ps to give what they be,I ever was a painful, skin damaging burst of ultrasound to a learner.
Found no relationship between LoC and obedience.
But Ps who gave high doses, those with internal LoC were more likely to take responsibility for their actions.
Shows that feelings of personal control could be related to resistance to social influence
Describe cryptomnesia
The process of how minority attitudes become majority.
New belief takes form without conscious understanding of where it came from.
Describe the snowball effect
Avermaet(1966)
As more people change their attitudes, change quicken
Describe conversion
The process where majority gradually adopt new minority view.
New belief is accepted both publically and privately
Type of internalisation
Describe factors involved in minority influence
Consistency
- indicates they’re committed
Commitment-
Seen as stronger if minority has had to resist social pressure and abuse because of their viewpoint.
Consistency and commitment create doings in established norms.
This leads to people re-examining their own behaviour and beliefs
Flexibility
Seen as more co operative and persuasive
Identification
Appealing to similarities such as gender
( Maas et al 1982)
Gay people arguing for gay rights wasn’t as successful as straight people fighting for gay rights.
Describe systematic and superficial processing
Systematic
Minority viewpoint is carefully considered over time
Superficial
Instantly dismissed without analysis
Who developed the social impact theory and what is it?
Latané and wolf(1981)
There are three factors that cause social impact when combined in sufficient measure
People change their behaviour if they’re put under pressure
Outline three factors causing social impact
Immediacy:
How recent or physically close the source of pressure is
Numbers:
The size of the group applying pressure
Strength:
How powerful the person/group applying pressure is
Outline a study that supported latané and would (1981)
Sedikides and Jackson(1990)
Field experiment in the bird house at a zoo
Outline a study that criticised Latané and wold(1981)
Mullen(1985)
Analysed data from social impact theory studies.
Criticised using self report techniques instead of observable behaviour
Describe the method for Moscovici et al(1969)
Lab experiment
192 female participants
Women split into groups of 6 with 2 confederates per group.
One control group with no confederates.
Groups asked to identify the colour of 36 slides. All were different shades of blue.
Consistent confederates identified wall 36 slides as green
Inconsistent confederates identified 12 slides as blue and the other 24 as green.
Describe the results of Moscovici et al(1969)
Groups with consistent confederates
- 32% Ps identified at least one slide as green.
-8% of the time, Ps identified slides as green
Groups with inconsistent confederates
-1% of the time, Ps identified slides as green
Control group
- 0.25% of the time, Ps identified slides as green.
What did Moscovici et al(1969) conclude?
Minority groups had more influence when they behaved consistent
Evaluate Moscovici et al(1969)
Control group result
- proves minority groups had influence
Low ecological validity
- ps we’re in an artificial situation
Low generalisability
Female Ps only
Describe the method for Nemeth et al(1974)
2 confederates per group
Three conditions:
- confederate identified every slide as green
- confederate identified darker slides as green and brighter slides as green-blue
-confederates randomly identified slides as green or green-blue
Describe the results of Nemeth et al(1974)
Inconsistent
- didn’t influence any participants
Consistently identifying slides as green
- didn’t influence participants
Lighter/darker
- significant influence on Ps
What can we conclude from Nemeth et al(1974)
Strict consistency was not effective. Ds responses seemed implausible when they could answer using multiple colours.
Flexible consistency was the most effective
